Gio Reyna “wants, needs to be” at World Cup with USMNT

Gio Reyna hasn’t had much of a role with the U.S. men’s national team over the past year, but it isn’t stopping him from having goals ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Reyna has only featured once for the USMNT in 2025, making a substitute appearance in the CONCACAF Nations League third-place loss to Canada last March. The 22-year-old was not part of the Gold Cup squad this summer or the September and October international windows over the past two months.

Despite scoring eight goals in 32 international caps to date, Reyna’s chances have been limited under Mauricio Pochettino, and could continue heading into the final window of the year.

Although Reyna knows he needs to earn consistent minutes at Borussia Moenchengladbach this fall and winter, he still has his eyes on being part of the USMNT’s World Cup roster next summer.

“I do obviously think about [the World Cup] pretty often as it’s somewhere where I need and want to be,” Reyna said in an interview with the Associated Press. “But I try to focus daily here, stay present here, work here every day, and hopefully believe everything will fall into place.”

Doug Zimmerman/ISI Photos

Reyna’s international career to date is more so known for the lingering effects of the 2022 World Cup. The attacking midfielder played only twice off the bench for the USMNT that winter, before later being identified as a player that was nearly sent home for a lack of effort in training by head coach Gregg Berhalter.

Berhalter was later investigated by U.S. Soccer for an old domestic violence allegation involving his now-current wife, an incident that was brought to light by Reyna’s parents; Claudio and Danielle. After U.S. Soccer’s investigation was completed, Berhalter was later re-hired by the program before eventually being relieved of his duties after the USMNT’s Copa America exit in 2024.

Reyna revealed that a lack of playing time under Berhalter in Qatar led to the tension between his former head coach and his family.

“At the end of the day, I was just upset that, you know, I wasn’t really playing. I was playing at Borussia Dortmund,” Reyna said. “I thought that I wanted to play at the World Cup and ultimately in the end, I didn’t do that, and that’s really what it stemmed from.

“I guess the frustration and the disappointment was just wanting to play and help my country,” he added. “It’s so far removed now and so far in the past, I don’t even really want to talk about it any more.”

Reyna has played just 120 minutes during the current Bundesliga season while on-loan from Borussia Dortmund and was an unused substitute on Tuesday as Borussia Moenchengladbach advanced in the DFB Pokal competition.

He will aim to get back to action on Saturday when Gladbach visits St. Pauli in league play.